Toppling the paper tiger kingdom of Shang was easy compared to the task now at hand. The far flung lands need to be united and ruled by a strong, but just, hand. Our new king, Wu Wang, the Son of Heaven, is well suited for the job. As royal administrator of the Zhou capital of Hao, the burden on the King will be eased if you perform well. There are vassals that must be controlled, and rivals usurped. As you guide the development of the city, you should keep a watchful eye on the other cities of the kingdom, particularly Shu. If a hen strays too far from the flock, she must be promptly bought back before becoming lost. Do not hesitate to use the King's army if the need arises.

As for the capital itself, ornate sculptures should be built to beautify the boulevards of the upper class, and graceful arched bridges used to span the powerful Wei river -- a river that at times can be quite unpredictable and dangerous, especially during the Spring rains.

If the mission only required an ally and some people in Humble Compound, this mission would actually be very easy to complete. However, the Rule Cities requirement makes this city much tougher, especially if playing on Very Hard.

This map is very large and there is plenty of space to construct the city. You won't be returning to expand this city, so don't worry about the placement of buildings for later monuments or population requirements. However, getting perfect harmony for the Feng Shui is a little bit harder, since the placement of rocks are a bit awkward. Nevertheless, perfect harmony is possible in this mission.

You start this mission with two vassals already willing to pay you tribute: Anyang and Qufu. Unless you are playing on Very Hard, then these two vassals will quietly trade for the whole mission, but if you don't build any military forces within a couple of years, then they will probably start rebelling and severing an early set of trade routes that provide some income early in the cities development. If playing on Very Hard, the two cities will rebel virtually instantly from starting the mission and will probably need to be quelled much later with gifts or military force.

To build a military will require crossing the Wei River in the North, as all the copper ore available is on that side of the river. There is a very small amount available on a mound just to the West of the entry point, but it won't provide enough bronze to create a military. You will need at least four fully staffed forts of troops before you can consider trying to conquer any cities, so focus primarily on generating income. With silk available in the map, it should not be too difficult to make some money. Don't forget that any silk produced early should probably be used to keep the gods from getting upset and for use as leverage in improving the favour of a city buying silk: cities that purchase silk include Wu and Pingyang. Depending on the location of your silk making industries will depend on the route that you plan to open. Wu is a land based trade route, with Pingyang being a water trade route.

Getting an ally should be pretty easy. Just keep giving a single city gifts of items that they require and they should reach Admiring and become an ally automatically. Be careful that you don't attempt to ally with everyone: if you do this, you won't be able to conquer a city to meet the Rule Cities goal. As hinted in the briefing, there will be many references to Shu being vulnerable or downsizing its military arm: use these hints to conquer that city to meet the vassal goal: however, any city that isn't a vassal or ally will satisfy the requirement (even the Nomad Camps can be made a vassal). If you don't send a large enough force, then the favour of that city will plummet, usually to Furious, which will likely result in an invasion from them. As a rule of thumb, you'll need four fully staffed forts to conquer a city with one shield for their military: if they have too many shields, send a Spy to sabotage their military forces so that they can be conquered easily.

Reaching the housing goal should be easy enough, but you'll need to import a fourth food type from another city. You'll notice that some cities are selling a commodity called Salt: this is not an actual food type, but acts as an additive that improves food quality. You are not required to import Salt to complete the mission, and you'll learn more about it in the next mission.

It should not take too long to reach the goals. There are plenty of exports available here, take time to exploit them all, while you wait to complete the other objectives.